PT's Ethiopia Sidamo Ardi Natural Three Ways

One of the the things that I have thought a lot about as a barista trainer is the difference between extraction and concentration. Extraction is how much of the solubles present in the bean makes it into the cup. Concentration is how many solubles are present in the cup. While these two concepts are related, the relationship is complicated. Bad coffee is often both over-extracted and under-concentrated. Both extraction and concentration have different effects on how taste is perceived.

Over-concentration is rare, but you get it sometimes. If you’ve ever tried to drink correctly made cold-brew before it gets watered for iced coffee, you’ve tasted it. Or rather, you’ve failed to taste much, but then the cup just opens up when you put some water in it. Some say this about Scotch whisky too.

Anyway, we were lucky enough to have Kasey from PT’s Coffee drop by and taste some coffees with us and leave some samples. Currently, we have the Sidamo Ardi Natural roasted for drip and for espresso. So that’s two ways already.

Anyway, one of the owners, Stefan, suggested that he really liked the Ardi natural as a drip, and it was the one of a very few drip coffee that he’d really ever enjoyed – but that the espresso version was just missing something. From my vantage point, it tasted like single origin espresso, and really quite good for a Sidamo as espresso. Anyway, I tried a little experiment. I ran the same shot (as best as I could replicate a shot) but poured it into 3.5 oz of water. Everything immediately opened up. It was delicious. So my favorite way to serve that Ardi Natural? A very tiny Americano.

We have just a little bit of it left, we’ll be serving it in the next couple of days (Sunday or Monday). By the time you get here, we’ll probably be out of the drip. But do try the Ardi Natural Americano.